


Scales and a chocolate-brown halo

by plantboycharms



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Fantasy, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Magic, Mermaid Oikawa, Swimming, Volleyball Dorks in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 05:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15790374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantboycharms/pseuds/plantboycharms
Summary: Hajime is very certain of a few things:1. That he has always and will always love Tooru2. Tooru is the most beautiful creature he's ever seen, emphasis on creatureAnd 3. That Tooru knows full well pouting will get him anything he wants





	Scales and a chocolate-brown halo

**Author's Note:**

> Hewwo! I went swimming today because I was sad and now look, I wrote mermaid! Oikawa because like why not I guess.   
> Yeah, the Oikawas speak Spanish. The Iwaizumis didn't until the Oikawas entered his life. The translation SHOULD be clear enough from Hajime's thoughts? If they're not, lmk?

Tooru stomped out of their room, unsurprisingly shirtless, and stopped in front of Hajime on the couch. He looked up from his book, not yet asking, and Tooru stomped a foot.   
“Nademos” he pouted.   
Hajime just stared at him, over the edge of his glasses.   
“Nademos!” Tooru insisted.   
“We can't swim, it's a Friday.” Hajime replied finally, looking back down. It wasn't really safe. The kids would be out.   
“No hay ni niños.” Tooru said, sulking.   
Hajime considered. There WAS a suspicious lack of screaming and splashing coming from outside.   
“They'll be out sooner or later.” He hedged.   
“La escuela ya es en sesión. No hará ningún niño. Nademos, Iwa-chan!”   
Hajime pondered it. If school was in session again, that meant they could finally swim in the daytime. Night swimming was fun, exhilarating in a way (because they'd be yelled at by security if they were caught, obviously, and had nothing to do with the fact that Oikawa carved a beautiful figure in the dark, lit up by the moon and shimmering in the water) but the sun made him sparkle in a way the moon didn't and if Hajime was honest, he missed it. 

Tooru was just standing there, in too-short shorts with aliens patterned on them, arms crossed over his chest.   
Hajime sighed, moving his bookmark (that Tooru loved to call him “viejito” for) and Tooru crowed in victory, perching on the edge of the armchair to wait for Hajime to get ready. 

He always fell for it. 

Tooru had been right. Not a child in sight, and the complex was quieter than Hajime could remember it being in months. He unlocked the door to the pool, letting Tooru dance past him and drop his phone and towel next to the closest chair. He made for the water, but Hajime caught his arm before he could leap in.   
“You have sunscreen on?”   
“Sí, Iwa-chan, lo había hecho antes de que fuimos. Por supuesto.” Tooru responded, haughty.   
“Okay, fine. But if you're lying and you DIDN'T put it on already and you get burned, you can apply your own aloe.”   
“Okay, mamá” Tooru replied, tossing his hair once and dropping his shorts quickly before taking two quick steps towards the water and tilting down into a perfect dive that shot him forward but not so far down as to hit the bottom of the shallow pool. 

Hajime watched, like he always did, from above the water. He could see the scales splitting Tooru's skin, bloodlessly, bringing themselves to the surface. Tooru always winced a little, but never complained. He always had pushed himself too far for Hajime's comfort, but he wouldn't stop him.   
The scales glittered and splintered sunlight in a way that the artificial lights from the pool couldn't hope to achieve. Thousands of tiny scales, from green to blue to purple and anything in between, shimmering on Tooru's legs as they shifted into one long piece, undulating in a way the knees and shin bones that had just been there could never hope to replicate. Hajime had tried to figure out the bone thing a while ago, to no avail. Even Tooru could only describe it as “es como si muelen, o se disuelven? Y después es cola. No lo sé, Iwa-chan, déjame vivir!” so he was useless. Grinding and dissolving into a tail was… as much as Hajime could have guessed. The mechanics behind it were what time was interested in. 

It wasn't a quick transformation by any means, but it was over before Hajime had time to formulate any solid thoughts other than “wow”. It had been a while since he'd seen it in daylight, and his brain was still sometimes overwhelmed by the beauty of it. Tooru twisting and kicking at the water, hair in his eyes as he flailed, and then serene, quiet, eyes wide and hair calmed as Hajime saw his last few scales pop in and the cartilage in his feet finish stretching into a huge fluke. 

They had been young, maybe six or seven, the first time Tooru and Hajime went to the beach together. Oikawa-san had warned her son (and by association, Hajime) not to go into the water at all, because the waves were dangerous. Tooru had nodded sullenly and Hajime had bowed, promising Oikawa-san he would stop Tooru from going near the waves, because that was the only word he’d picked up. (Olas sounded a lot like Hola and you wave when you say hello, right?) She had glared at him over the rims of her expensive sunglasses, far nicer than anything Hajime’s mother owned, but then settled down on her towel with a magazine.   
“Sandwiches a las 12, no olviden.” She said dismissively, waving a hand at them without looking. Tooru had shuffled off with a “ciao, Mami” and Hajime had followed him.   
Once out of immediate eyesight and sheltered by the many other families on the beach, Tooru had perked up, taking Hajime's hand and pulling him until they were almost running across the damp sand.   
“Stop, stop, where are we going?” Hajime panted, and Tooru just pointed towards the rocks ahead.   
Hajime couldn't pretend that didn't look cool as all hell to explore. 

Sure enough, the caves were empty, probably because of how dangerous they looked, but the boys weren't slowed down. Tooru jabbered on in Spanish and Hajime picked up a few words here and there. He was getting better, spending all his time with the Oikawas helped, but nobody was teaching him, so it was slow. They went across some rocks and found a completely secluded lagoon, seemingly unaffected by the tide entirely.   
Tooru turned to Hajime with eyes like stars.   
“NADEMOS AQUÍ, Iwa-chan.” He had crowed.   
“But… your mom said…” Hajime hedged.   
“No hay ni olas!” Tooru replied. “Solo agua. Cómo piscina!”   
Hajime thought hard. “A pool? Piscina?” he asked, tilting his head.   
“Sí! No hay peligro en una piscina. Vamos!” His tone imperative, shoes and shirt already off, Tooru stepped towards the water fearlessly.   
Hajime thought he heard him mumble something as he sat down on the edge of the water and put his legs in, but he didn't think about it too hard. 

Until Tooru was shrieking, flailing in the water and letting out a stream of utterly incomprehensible Spanish that Hajime didn't think he'd be able to keep up with on dry land, let alone with the sound of splashing and gurgling as Tooru went under over and over. Hajime wasn't the strongest swimmer, and the water looked deep, but nothing was going to stop him from saving his best and only friend, especially when he'd sworn to keeping him safe.   
So he'd yelled “stay calm! Here I come!’ and leapt into the water after him, shoes still on.  
Dragging a now-limp Tooru out of the water and up onto the lip of the strange lagoon wasn't the hard part.   
The hard part was wrapping his tiny mind around the shimmering tail that was still flopped halfway into the water once Hajime had pulled out what would have been all of Tooru, five minutes ago.   
But there was no time to marvel at the blue-green-purple-silver shine and the way the light from the sun was throwing multicolored tiny dots around the walls when it shone off of the scales. No time to do anything but tie Tooru's shirt around his waist and his shoes over his neck and hoist him up into his arms, carrying him bridal style out of the caves and back to Oikawa-san. Because when you don't know how to handle something, you find an adult.   
Oikawa-san screamed, a high pitched shriek that reminded Hajime of the scream he'd just heard from her son, minutes ago. He shuddered.   
“Mira lo que has hecho! Te dije NO agua! Y eso qué es??”   
“Uh… I don't know, Oikawa-san, ma'am, but we didn't go into the waves…” Hajime hedged, still holding up Tooru's torso. She was already leaping up, covering Tooru in a towel and rubbing downwards over his scales.   
“Toda la gente en la playa te ha visto, de dónde han venido? No me digan las cuevas. Por supuesto eran las cuevas. Sabía que era mala idea traerte aquí. Tooru no sabe que significa la palabra 'no’ de eso estoy seguro. Y ahora? Que hago. Ahora sabe que la tiene, no podré explicar nada… eso es un FRACASO.” 

Hajime had only really understood a bit of what she had said, namely “caves” and “bad idea” and “doesn't know the word no” and “DISASTER” or “FAILURE” or whatever ‘fracaso’ actually meant. The feeling was there, though, and Hajime shrank back as he stared down at Tooru's face. His hair was plastered flat to his head on one side and all rumpled on the other from where Hajime had him pressed against his chest, half dragging and half carrying him across the beach. Surprisingly, not many people had looked their way, even if Hajime was a tiny boy dragging along a lot of mermaid tail attached to an even TINIER boy.   
As Oikawa-san rubbed at Tooru's legs under the blanket, Hajime could almost hear something strange. Like something was falling.   
And then Tooru was coming to, looking down, withdrawing his legs from his mother, and pulling his knees (he had knees again!) up to his chest indignantly.   
“Mamá, mis pantalones!”   
And Hajime had laughed in relief, shielding his eyes from seeing Tooru's bright red face but also so nobody could see the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes.   
Nothing was explained, but they'd figure it out. 

 

Hajime watched as Tooru stretched out, eyes closed and hair floating around his head as he basked, floating on the top of the water. The pool wasn't big enough, by any means, but it was bigger than their last complex and Tooru could actually fit in it stretched out, as opposed to the tiny one they'd been in before that could barely fit all 7 feet of Oikawa Tooru, let alone let him swim around.   
With a short gasp, Tooru pulled in air and then used his arms and tail to descend under the water quickly, staring up at Hajime from the bottom of the pool now. He took the hint, putting down his bag and kicking his shoes off. Tooru had swirled around and was now peeking over the side of the pool, watching Hajime take off his shirt with an appreciative look on his face. Hajime rolled his eyes as Tooru ogled him, and Tooru pulled enough of his head out of the water to spit “bruto” at him and stick his tongue out before backflipping around in a graceful circle and twisting away to swim the length of the pool in one go. Hajime was a good swimmer, but nothing compared to Tooru.   
He watched, somewhat awed, as Tooru swam back to him, lazily but still faster than any human, and popped out again.   
“Ven, Iwa-chan! ¿O me vas a mirar desde allá todo el día?”   
Hajime scowled and considered just walking away and taking Tooru's phone with him, but walked over to the steps and put a foot into the water.   
Not so bad.   
But he COULD watch him all day, that was a given. 

To say that Oikawa Tooru was not graceful out of water would be a lie. He was rather graceful on land, a beautiful runner, jumper, and even dancer, when he deigned to let his body move to the music (or when he was drunk in a club with Hajime). But compared to Oikawa Tooru in water, Oikawa Tooru on land was a baby colt just learning to stand on wobbly knees and unsteady ankles. 

He cut an impressive line in the water, slipping from one side of the pool to the other in mere seconds. His tail undulated and he moved almost like he wasn't thinking about it, arms waving slowly through the water to help him shift positions. He grinned up at Hajime through his chocolate-brown hair, swimming quick circles around him as he stayed in the middle of the pool, treading water.   
Hajime had never loved anyone like he loved Tooru. He always knew that it would end up like this. Tooru refusing to speak English sometimes, making Hajime carry him around and just generally being bossy, getting into moods and hurting himself from pushing too hard… Hajime loved every bit of it. He wanted to kiss Tooru, but he also didn't want to interrupt his swimming time. So he contented himself in watching Tooru slide through the water like he was made for it, twisting and splashing, going fast and then slow, almost dancing. He laughed and batted at Hajime's ankles, splashed him from across the pool, and squealed when Hajime slung him over his shoulder and pretended to be "catching a mermaid to bring home to his family for dinner" like he did every time. 

His lips were purple and his fingernails were quickly approaching a matching shade when Hajime finally said “Oikawa. We should go.” And Tooru WHINED when he popped up, complaining about “solo cinco minutos” and “no es justo no te paro cuando leyes por horas y horas” but Hajime climbed out of the water and ignored it as he dried off.  
“No, not five more minutes, no more minutes. And reading is a perfectly normal, human activity that doesn't involve putting you in danger, so yeah maybe I read for hours and hours but it's not really quite the same, is it?”   
Tooru pouted.  
“Oikawa, ven. Vamos.” Hajime didn't speak Spanish often, he knew Oikawa understood him and he really didn't speak much even if he did understand flawlessly, but it tended to get Tooru moving.   
The merman grumbled and whined, but kicked once with his powerful tail and pushed up onto the edge of the pool, wrapping his towel around his top half and scrubbing the excess water from his arms. He shook his head, effectively spraying Hajime with pool water again, then smiling coyly as he scowled. 

Hajime was lucky he was strong. Or maybe Tooru was lucky he was strong.   
Either way, the tail was heavy, especially waterlogged, and they were both lucky they lived right by the pool. 

Hajime got to shower first “because my hair is short and it only takes me five minutes, Tooru, and YOU won't let me shower with you, so shut up” but that meant he had all the time in the world to sit around and wait for Tooru, once he was done scrubbing the chlorine off of his skin.   
And there was a lot of waiting for Tooru.   
After his shower, Hajime had to listen to him scrubbing, whining every so often in a quiet voice he must have thought Hajime couldn't hear, and the very gentle plink plink of scales hitting the bathtub. He had broken the door down, the first time he'd heard it, thinking something was wrong, but had only found a shrieking Tooru, covered in and surrounded by loose scales and slimy-looking fin membrane that he was, apparently, scrubbing off. 

Hajime was used to it now, but that didn't make it any better. 

Nor did scooping them out of the bathtub into baggies to make into jewelry or sell online.

But all of that was better than being forced to partake in Tooru's complicated post-swim moisturizing routine, which had at least six steps and made him smell almost overwhelmingly sweet.   
(Although, if he was being honest, it was rather nice to rub his legs against Tooru's, under the blankets when they went to bed, exhausted from the day.)

“Recuerdas cuando-” Tooru slurred, face pressed into Hajime’s chest and (very soft) legs tangled with his, trailing off.   
“The first beach trip when I thought you'd died and that your mother was going to send me right on after you? Yeah, I was just thinking about it.” Hajime supplied to his VERY sleepy boyfriend.   
“Te amaba, ¿sabías?”   
“Yeah,” Hajime sighed into Tooru's hair. “I loved you too. Still do.”   
But even Tooru's laugh of “cursi, Iwa-chan” couldn't stop his heart from fluttering as Tooru's arms wrapped tighter around his waist and squeezed.   
And even the vague smell of chlorine lingering on Tooru's hair didn't stop him from falling asleep with his nose buried in it.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Oikawa my stupid grandiose boy   
> Leave me notes and kudos or whatever I dunno   
> Also find me on The Tumbler Dot Com it's fragile-euphoria and you KNOW I am always down to Yell about these Boys   
> Love u all   
> So long and thanks for all the fish


End file.
